Deaths of Doris Alzak and Paul Bagge add to Springfield homicide total

View full sizeStaff photo by Patrick JohnsonA small shrine to Doris Alzak sits on the front-lawn of her boarded-up house on Phillips Avenue. The District Attorney said the woman's death on Tuesday was the result of homicide.

SPRINGFIELD – District Attorney Mark Mastroianni confirmed Thursday afternoon that 81-year-old Doris Alzak, who was found dead during a house fire at her 100 Phillips Ave. home on Tuesday, was a victim of homicide.

That announcement came hours after it was revealed that the victim of a Tuesday night assault on East Street, 45-year-old Paul Bagge of Roosevelt Avenue, had died of his injuries late Wednesday at Baystate Medical Center.

The two deaths brings the city’s homicide tally so far to 13 since Jan. 1, just three fewer than the total for all of last year.

As this point in 2010, there were nine homicides in Springfield.

Alzak was found dead at the scene inside her home on Phillips Avenue, which is off
Boston Road near Five Mile Pond. Firefighters responding to a 3 p.m. fire, discovered her body sitting in a chair in the living room as they extinguished the fire that caused $60, 000 damage.

Shortly afterward, both Alzak’s death and the cause of the fire were declared suspicious.

The final autopsy report has not been completed, but Mastroianni said the preliminary autopsy report as well as evidence gathered at the scene are sufficient for determining it was a homicide.

Mastroianni did not disclose the exact cause of death. He said the cause may be revealed as the investigation progresses.

He declined to go in to details. he would also not discuss possible motives or if investigators believe the killer was someone who knew Alzak.

The case is being investigated by the Springfield police detective bureau and the office of the state Fire Marshall in conjunction with his office.

On Phillips Avenue, a quiet residential street off Boston Road near Five Mile Pond, neighbors said they were shocked to hear how Alzak died and that violence more common in more urban parts of their city could occur in their residential neighborhood.

Neighbor Lester Johnson, standing outside his home while his kids shot baskets, said the crime was unfathomable for that street.

Johanna Ruiz, who lives a few doors down from Alzak’s house admitted to being frightened.

“I thought this was a quiet neighborhood. You don’t see a lot of people,” she said.
“Now I’m scared to be alone.”

Ruiz, who lives just down the street, said she did not know Alzak but would see her all the time tending to her yard.

“She was always out in her garden,” she said.

Another neighbor, Sarah Murtha said it bothered her that that something like that could happen to a neighbor and that it could happened in broad daylight.

“That’s what makes it scary,” she said.

She said she has already instructed her kids they have to stay close to home. They are not allowed to go further than the corner by their house, she said.

Neighbor Lester Johnson said “We’ve been here for eight years and nothing like this ever happened here. We’ve had a few break-ins, but a homicide? Never.”

Johnson recalled Alzak as “a nice lady” who was very friendly.

He said he would help her out here and there with yard work or putting out the trash.

“I shoveled her driveway once and she gave me an apple,” he said.

On Roosevelt Avenue, no one answered the door at Bagge’s residence.

According to police, Bagge suffered critical injuries Tuesday evening when he was punched in the face and fell to the ground as he tried to break up a dispute on East Street between a man and woman over a stray dog.

The assailant, Guy Wilson, 52, of 168 East St. who had been charged with assault and battery, will now be charged with murder, said police Sgt. John Delaney, aide to Commissioner William Fitchet.

Prior to Tuesday, Springfield police have been investigating three homicides, each of them described as related to street gangs, over the past two weeks.

Those homicides are:

- On July 3, Raul E. Vera, 38, was found shot to death on Lincoln Street near the Springfield Technical Community College.

- On July 7, 16-year-old Tyrel Wheeler was found shot multiple times near his car on Washington Street. He died three days later.

- On July 9, 18-year-old James Rosario was shot to death at an early morning house party at his parents house at 85 Edgeland St. Police said an argument turned to pushing and shoving and then escalated into gunfire.

There have not been any arrests in the three cases.

Asked to comment about how he can reassure the public about safety in Springfield given the sudden outbreak of violence that has left five dead in 11 days, Mastroianni said he did not have an answer. He said he had been too involved with the details of the Alzak case on Thursday to give the broader picture much thought.

He said he would respond to the question by Friday.
Republican reporters Buffy Spencer and George Graham contributed to this report.